Green Years

The line that jumped out at me as the main point of Semrau’s article is, “Quite simply, use what you have until it can no longer function.  Then it’s time to recycle.” After circling around the point, he states it bluntly.

Personally, I do not like how he “intentionally keeps information from the reader.”  I would rather Waldemar clearly state his belief in recycling and his view on the topic after having an interesting conversation with his friend, Fred Keller, chairman and owner of Cascade Engineering.  However, that is not his writing style; he stretches out the story much longer and keeps the reader interested.  It would be much easier for him say what he needed to say and get to the point: “I’m old and in med school.”  Semrau works his way around his point at first by telling the reader a little sneak peak of his life story.  As the reader, I do agree with his position in “going green.”  He is not completely saving the Earth, but he is doing what he can to save or “reuse.”  In the end, he has quite the courage to go back, at seventy-five years old, to college to become a surgeon, a child hood dream of his. 

Savior of the Nations, Come.

The main theme of Luther’s hymn is that God sent Christ to die for our sinful selves.  The hymn starts off talking about his miraculous birth, to the death and sacrifice of our Savior.  He talks about how important it is that we praise the Lord for this wonderful gift of forgiveness that he gives us.

By reading Savior of the Nations, Come, the reader captures his point as making it known that as Christians we need Jesus Christ as our Savior.  He uses diction to explain his point.  The line, “Though by all the world disowned, Still to be in heaven enthroned” really portrays the word choice that Luther chose to use.  The world is “disowned” because of the sin that haunts us, however through the works of Christ we are made clean and accepted into heaven with our Father.  If Luther used just an ordinary word such as ‘received’ or ‘allowed’, it would not have given off the same emotional effect as “enthroned.”  Diction allows the word choice of the author effects the reader in a different way than a more simple expression.  By using diction he elaborates that as sinners we need Christ’s forgiveness in our lives.

Gospel Mentioned

I counted Christ mentioned 31 times in Reverend Borghardt's sermon.

Some of Burghardt's verbs were: makes holy, makes blessings, slain, is lamb, died, rose, lives, took sin, is holy, make pure, reigns, and forgives.

I used Pastor Wilken’s diagnostic on both Edward’s lecture and Burghardt’s gospel message to distinguish the two very different themes.  Edward’s speech reminded us that as sinners we deserve nothing but eternal death and the wrath of God.  However he did not mention the gospel more than five times in the four paged portion.  On the other hand Burghardt preached about Jesus Christ and allowed the congregation to understand that they were saved by the Lamb.  He says “He died for you, He lives for you, He reigns with you” and hearing that gives Christians the hope of eternal life.

Fuzzy Dice?

This article explains to the people that the law does not allow items to be hung from their rear-view mirrors.  Most citizens do not know this law because many policemen do not pull people over for it, unless of course is it a major disruption to the sight of the road.  This is why people want to change the law so that they are allowed to hang small objects for decoration.

“I call it a ‘gotcha’ law.  It’s an excuse to pull someone over.”  This is my favorite quote because many police officers know that it is against the law to have an object hanging from the rear-view mirror and choose not to bother with pulling someone over and writing them a ticket.  However since it is still the law regarding the size of the item, a policeman still has every right to enforce the law at any given time.

I do not agree with this law.  I believe that it is the driver’s responsibility to make sure the object that they choose to hang on their rear-view mirror does not obstruct their sight of the road.  Every law has its exceptions though, if a person is driving with a FOR SALE sign on the mirror that becomes a danger to the other drivers on the road and should not be allowed.  Policemen should not be wasting their time pulling over people for a small item hanging on their mirror; they should be putting more time into catching drunk drivers on the road who are endangering the safety of others.

Big Heads and Race Cards

In  Mitch Albom's article, he is trying to persuade the reader into believing that this controversy had nothing to do with the race card.  However, LeBron seemed to believe that what the American society thought of him was based off his race.  The facts of the situation do not change because he is not white.  Mitch Albom states, “Because ego knows no color”, it comes down to the fact that the people thought that he had a big head regardless of his skin tone.  I agree with Mitch because no matter what race you are, if you make a big deal out of a small situation such as choosing what basketball team to play for, you are going to get attention from the press.  That attention could go both ways; in James’ case it was negative because the people thought he was full of himself.  By using Brett Favre leaving Green Bay, and how CNN did not ask Favre if it was about his race, really shows the reader how LeBron has a big head.  Also, by changing LeBron’s to Leo, it shows that Mitch is not trying to express his anger about James, but to prove to the reader that race is not an issue in this circumstance.